Current Data on Manganese in Foods and in U.S. Diets from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Total Diet Study

Abstract

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Total Diet Study (TDS) program monitors concentrations of manganese, other nutrient minerals, and a variety of toxic substances in foods representative of U.S. diets. These data are available to the public on the TDS website. FDA's most recent TDS‐based intake estimates for manganese, published in 2002, were based on TDS data generated from 1991–1996. We recently initiated a program to update intake estimates for manganese and other TDS analytes using data generated from 2007–2012. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP‐AES) was used to determine manganese concentrations in each of 259 foods collected under the TDS program. Of 6143 TDS food samples, 1694 (27.6%) had manganese concentrations below the limit of detection (LOD). We estimated lower bound mean manganese concentrations in TDS foods assuming that samples in which manganese was not detected contained zero manganese, and we estimated upper bound mean manganese concentrations assuming that samples with non‐detected manganese concentrations had concentrations equal to the LOD. We also used a zero‐inflated distribution model to estimate means and confidence intervals for manganese in TDS foods based on clustered data. We merged each set of manganese concentration data with food consumption data from the 2007–2008, 2009–2010, and 2011–2012 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) dietary component, What We Eat In America (WWEIA) and then estimated usual intakes of manganese by U.S. population subgroups using PC‐Side software (v. 1.0, Iowa State University). Proportions of NHANES/WWEIA respondents with manganese intakes greater than the Tolerable Upper Intake Level were low (< 1%) for most subgroups, but high (≥ 5%) among children ages 1 – 3 years and 4 – 8 years. Over 40% of manganese intake was provided by cereals and grain products. Other major contributors to manganese intake were pizza and other mixed dishes (likely due to the grain components) and tea. The updated TDS manganese data and intake estimates based on these data provide key information on manganese in U.S. foods and diets.Support or Funding InformationU.S. Food and Drug Administration